Helga & Tim MacAller

Products: Nursery stock of native perennials, interesting plants, healthy vegetables.

Location: Rougemont, NC

History: Helga and Tim MacAller started Four Leaf Farm in 1979 on a rental property in Durham County. A few years later they moved the farm to its current location outside of Rougemont in northern Orange County, then gave up farming for several years to raise their two children. In 2000, Helga says, “our passion caught up with us again,” and they’ve been selling their native perennials, bedding plants, vegetables and cut flowers at local markets ever since. Four Leaf Farm has been a fixture at the Durham Farmers’ Market since 2002.

Tim is a native Californian with a degree in Botany and Helga comes from a family of small farmers in Denmark. They both work full time while operating their farm business. Four Leaf Farm has under an acre in production, which the MacAllers cultivate with an eye toward sustainability. They feed their soil with compost and manure, control weeds through a combination of hand weeding, flame weeding and mulching, and control pests with limited use of organically accepted pesticides.

The MacAllers sell at the Durham Farmers Market because it gives them direct contact with others who share their love of food and gardening, and they are heartened by the interest Durhamites have shown in supporting local agriculture.

Helga and Tim invite you to stop by the Four Leaf Farm stand at the Durham Farmers’ Market for a wide selection of fresh seasonal produce, healthy bedding plants and interesting native perennials for your own garden.